Cyber attacks are proving a unique challenge to the insurance industry, as insurers try and make sure that an under-informed customer base have the right protection in the event of a successful attack.
A group of industry experts yesterday highlighted the need for education in cyber risk, and urged firms to to become aware of their insurance needs. Business customers’ lack of understanding of the risks persists all the way to C-Suite level.
At the Kaspersky Labs roundtable in London, attendees compared the high profile campaigns about road safety to the lack of information on cyber security.
"We’re not being drip fed cyber safety in the way we are drip fed road safety", said David Emm of Kaspersky Lab.
Nick Beecroft, manager, emerging risks & research, at Lloyds, called on firms to "share cyber attack data on an annoynamised basis" to help the industry create more accurate models for insuring against cyber attacks.
A large part of the discussion revolved around how relevant insurance products could be packaged. In some cases they could be bundled in with other products, on other occasions a specific cyber policy may be required.
"Cyber risk is going to be more specific", noted Lauren Cisco from JLT Group. Beecroft said that growing "demand for cyber insurance has been led by the US," and the regulatory environment there.
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The group of experts also included John Hurrell, chief executive of Airmic, Simon Gilbert, managing director, Elmore Insurance Brokers, Matt Holland, head of information security, Education First. It was chaired by Professor James Davey of Southampton University
